Dragon Quest Builders’ Kazuya Niinou Leaves Square-Enix

Dragon Quest Builders’ Kazuya Niinou Leaves Square-Enix

Following the release of Dragon Quest Builders 2, series director Kazuya Niinou has announced his exit from Square-Enix.

Following the release of Dragon Quest Builders 2 last month, series director Kazuya Niinou has announced his exit from Square-Enix.

“With development on Builders 2 completed, I have left Square-Enix,” says Niinou in a tweet. To Naoki Yoshida, Noriyoshi Fujimoto, Takuma Shiraishi, all of my colleagues, and everyone who enjoyed the games I made, thank you so much! I truly appreciate your support.”

Besides being the series director of the Dragon Quest Builders series, Niinou has previously worked on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Etrian Odyssey, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, and 7th Dragon. Niinou says he already knows what he’ll be working on next. Additionally, he’ll continue to look over Dragon Quest Builders 2 as an external staff member at Square-Enix. That being said, it’s unclear if any more content will be added to the game.

“I have been at Square-Enix for about seven years (my longest yet!)”, continues Niinou. “I felt a little burned out with Builders 2 and wanted to try out a development cycle different from Square-Enix, so I set out for a new development environment.”

This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.